Our pets do experience sadness when we leave them, but there are things you can do to help them adjust.
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“Dogs do experience fundamental emotions like happiness and sadness,” said Clive Wynne, professor of psychology at Arizona State University and director of the Canine Science Collaboratory. Wynne is the author of “Dog is Love: Why and How Your Dog Loves You.”
“They are highly social beings who love being with families. They can make friends with any species,” Wynne says. “They don’t like being left alone. I think leaving our dogs home alone for long periods is the most common unintentional cruelty that people in our society are doing to dogs.”
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“It does a human good to have someone to talk to, and the dogs enjoy being spoken to.”